Reincarnation of The Hunter
by Hybrid Blade
Summary: The Kyuubi and Naruto were polar opposites until that day Naruto was in danger that was life threatening. Now he must struggle to rebuild a soul that he lost, and revisit a lost life. Dark AU.
1. Meeting of the Other Hunter

Naruto hated suprises.

As the shinobi-in-training deftly soared over the branches of the trees that lied in the lush forest of Konohagakure no Sato, the breeze ruffled his hair. The boy was returning from his late night excursions as a vigilante in the city miles away from Konoha. The sun was falling : As Naruto went in the opposite direction of it, his back was covered in a beautiful reddish hue from the sun.

Putting aside such musings as they were those of a poet, the blonde-haired living prison reversed in mid-air, now facing a plain, simple tree.

The place where the enemy he had smelled would hide, was what he knew.

Once again, Naruto's keen senses made him acutely aware of the target's location. The kunai he threw served it's purpose to lure out the attacker as the enemy launched into action, a blur of green and silver.

Naruto awaited the assault, sensing the killer intent put behind the charge. His reflexes were proved adept as he backhanded the madly rushing target in midair with enough force to send the pursuer flying into the tree to Naruto's right.

Naruto embraced his fall as he descended, then flipped forward gracefully, landing in a crouched position. He then snapped up and hurtled another kunai in a practiced motion so that it stabbed the enemy's shoulder and pinned him to the tree due to it's force. He then threw four more, successfully pinning the now identified prey against the tree.

The Jinchuuriki stared with barely contained excitement as he gazed at his prey, giving away little however, as the instructor tried to get down in vain.

"Hello Mizuki."

The instructor swore loudly, probably just now realizing that Naruto, the demon brat, being a student of his, would recognize him. Naruto noted the slash on the hitai-ate and the forbidden scroll with more glee.

Quite an interesting prey, but weak. Very weak.

Just as he walked towards the man, fully intent on grabbing the scroll and taking Mizuki in, he ducked. A windmill shuriken buzzed over his head, and then Naruto had to avoid another from taking off his leg with a leap.

Now the chase had gotten more interesting for the hunter. He slipped on his mask, and then gazed up at the new arrival. In all his glory stood a former ANBU, identifiable by the mask and armor.

However, if the man had beem expecting fear from the twelve-year-old, he was sadly disappointed as the boy simply let a scarred, bordeline sadistic grin cross his face.

Naruto closed the distance between him and the ANBU in moments by diving to meet him in a clash : Naruto's iron boot met the blade of the ANBU in moments. Using his chakra control, the blond walked one step on the flat side of the katana, which had been used to block, and then delivered a devestating blow to the man's face with the toe of his boot.

The ANBU fell back, nose bloodied, seemingly ready to insult Naruto, most likely a portion of the village who hated him. Still, Naruto flashed through handseals at a rate at which his hands blurred, yet it was still at a speed low enough for him to not make many errors or start repeating himself.

Naruto finished the chain of two handseals in a moment, then performed the silent jutsu that charged the two daggers he threw with electricity. After they made direct contact, the ANBU twitched before poofing out of existence.

"Kage Bunshin."

Naruto turned in time to receive a heel kick to his cheek, spinning him and causing him to fall flat down. He tasted blood and licked it, happy that he was facing prey that fought for it's life in a way that didn't make him grimace at the pitifulness of the attempt.

Snapping out with a low kick that tripped up the elite black ops member, he ferally smirked as the man tripped and then, in midair, exploded. Naruto had anticipated this, and he had already done the seals for a kawamiri before he had kicked. Thus, he was able to poof out of existence in an instance.

Now overlooking the spot where Mizuki was pinned, Naruto stood, eyes scanning the battlefield for any hint of his opponent. Naruto then applied chakra to his fist and smashed it back, knuckle meeting the soft flesh on the ANBU's nose.

There was a crunch as the shinobi fell. Naruto knew though, that a shinobi that level would be good enough that he landed perfectly almost everytime, however, so he sent off a pulse of chakra that rid himself of it, and he was able to see that the man had caught himself and was standing.

The brown haired man seemed ready to continue the fight, yet he was instantly frozen as two needles were stabbed into his neck. Naruto gazed up, only to see nothing, and then looked down and barely made out a girlish male grabbing the body and taking flight.

Naruto's eyes took an almost deranged look, angered by the loss of prey.

And then, he called on the services of his tenant. The conversation in his mind, the brief conflict, all occured in milliseconds. To any other, it would appear as if he blinked and his eyes were red: a cruel, broken ruby red, replacing the salty sea blue that normally rested there.

The chakra solidified a tad bit as a faint outline of the Kyuubi encircled him. They became solid enough that, after forming four tentacles with the chakra, showing his control of it well, he used them to leap and take pursuit of the rival hunter in the night.

The chase was on : the blond jinchuuriki used the demon chakra as extra limbs, jumping as far as possible and, when he almost would fall, would use the chakra to grapple a tree or swing off of a branch. The girly male was a blur as he evaded strikes from the chakra.

And so the game of cat and mouse insued, until Naruto fully bridged the distance.

The angered blond caught up to the rival hunter and smashed his face, shattering the mask over it, showing an feminine face. Naruto saw the tell-tale lack of adam's apple, and realized in interest that this was really a female, quite rare among a field specifically for killing.

Naruto may have noted this, but he did not hesitate in lunging at the downed warrior. Suddenly, a mist settled over the area, and when it cleared, the hunter had disappeared.

With a murderous roar at losing his new prey, Naruto grabbed the ANBU and disappeared as well. One thought surging through his mind, still plagued with the loss, as he grabbed the scroll and Mizuki.

'Im gonna kill those bastards, how dare they!'

After returning to the village, Naruto was assaulted by numerous chuunin and a few jounin. ANBU intercepted them and pinned them down however, and Naruto was grateful to the shadowy figures for once.

"Naruto, meet me in my office, please." Naruto's neck snapped around so quickly that he thought he would get whip lash. There stood the one man who Naruto saw as more than prey. The man who got respect even from the scathing and sarcastic container.

There stood the Sandaime in all of his glory. He had already taken the scroll, which he now held in his arms, without Naruto's notice. He had leaves swirling around his body, part of the trademark Konoha Shunshin.

"Flashy." Naruto commented. Sarutobi ignored the dry commentary, instead choosing to order that all of the attackers be taken away.

Naruto walked behind the hokage, knowing that he wouldn't be able to leave out a single detail. Well, he would have to use the utmost subtelty in skirting around the subject out Kyuubi's chakra. However, he still allowed himself a grin.

Cake.

* * *

**A/N: Quite short, but it will have to do until the next chapter. How was my first entry to the Naruto fandom? Please submit a review. Oh yes, and, no worries, next chapter should be around 4k, have it almost fully typed out, will be out tomorrow.**

**Oh, and for fans of my HP story... It ain't abandoned, I just didn't have access to a computer, now I'm back, and i'm going to rewrite every story i've abandoned, even the DBZ one. **


	2. The Completion of The Hunter

Naruto grimaced. He had always hated the feeling he got after the adrenaline wore off : The child had been tired a bit after the battle, something he was not used to dealing with.

As he exited the shopping district of Konoha, he inspected the ANBU katana he now held : a fine blade, made by the best in the village. A prize of his hunt, one that the Sandaime had allowed him simply because the old man enjoyed rewarding others for good deeds.

Naruto also held the money leftover from the bounty the Hokage put up : those two had held the forbidden scroll, and village secrets were of the utmost importancy. Thus, He has received pay for a borderline S-rank mission, or in other words, high A-class.

The jinchuuriki was still a human being, and thus enjoyed the trivial things such as money, so he had immediately went off and spent it. He had instantly restocked on kunai and bought a fresh set of black pants as well as a new sleeveless black top with a white long-sleeved shirt with a large amount of chainmail under it.

He had also restocked on groceries : he enjoyed for once the ability to afford the freshest milk and vegetables, but stayed away from anything that he had heard would stunt his growth.

After all, a hunter needed to be in the best of conditions at anytime, ready for any threat and new prey to come along.

The jailor was called to meet his prisoner that night after mere moments of rest.

In place of the usual male form taken by the Kyuubi, Naruto was suprised to see a female Kyuubi waiting in the cage for him. She stood at 5"9', towering over him, as she always did in a human form.She swished her tails about in a hypnotizing rhythm, and he watched her for minutes simply doing just this.

Finally, his impatience set in and he barked out to her.

" I know you didn't summon me to play mind games, Kyuu-chan, so let's get to business."

She scowled at the mockery of her name and snapped at him in response.

"Oh come on Naru-kun, that's not how you treat your soulmate, is it?"

He scowled at her until it seemed his mouth was sliding off of his face.

" We are not soulmates in the way that you desire, despite your little wet dreams, whore."

She growled at him ferally, and then leapt out and clawed at the bars. He stood his ground, not even flinching while her spit reached out to him.

" Let's save the fun for later," he mocked, "right now, let's get down to business." He suddenly turned deadly serious, and she stepped back, then adopting a male form as she often did when she was particularly angry with him.

" Fine you annoying little piece of shit. It's a wonder I never let you die, even I would be saving my clan from having to deal with such trash."

" You know you keep me around for me dazzlingly good looks, so shut the hell up with the school-girl hard-to-get attitude and explain."

She/he suddenly became more serious as well, and then stood straight up. You could see the shackles on her arms and legs, placed by the fourth.

" I wish to discuss your battle with the fellow named Mizuki."

He raised his eyebrows.

" More detail?" Naruto requested.

She gave a sigh.

" You shouldn't have accessed my chakra so close to Konoha's walls. You haven't done that since the day you met me."

Naruto reminisced to that day.

It had been a normal day, that time of the year when the Kyuubi festival was celebrated. He was six : He had needed help, he had been beaten to a pulp by genin who kept calling him a monster. He hadn't understood until he saw the strange creature known as Kyuubi's eyes.

He had been about to die. He had fought death well, and in a last gamble, he had ripped off the paper that said seal.

Really, thankfully, it hadn't been the seal keeping Kyuubi in Naruto.

It was one of the other ones: there were dozens of seals within Naruto, in hidden corridors in the sewer that was his mind. His mind was structured this way so that Naruto would not be able to find all of the seals and tear them accidentally.

Unfortunately, when one of the more powerful seals, the one on the wall seperating Naruto and Kyuubi, was ripped, it's duty was ended. Naruto had destroyed the barrier keeping one vital thing of Naruto and Kyuubi's apart.

Their souls.

Now, when the evil soul met the pure human one, this had royally screwed up both. It had been like a rotten apple being in water with a normal one for a small moment. Naruto's soul had taken a few traits from the rotten Kyuubi soul.

This had also screwed up Kyuubi's soul because now, she had half of a human's soul. She was no longer purely demon, and thus, was only capable of taking her full demonic form for short periods of time.

Naruto's soul, however, was still fully human. However, it was so tainted with the demon soul that it had become simply something still just out of reach of human. Possibly one-thirtieth of Naruto's soul had become demon.

This amounted to little more than Naruto having many of Kyuubi's traits. He saw everything in a disgustingly primal way : Survival of the fittest, only predator and prey.

However, now with no restraint left and with the power to do harm due to free access of Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto had ripped the genin who had attacked him to shreds easily.

" Well...I felt... mad?"

Kyuubi smirked. Naruto had the decency to at least look down at the lame comment. He knew that she didn't care much about his reactions, as he was a mortal, but that didn't matter much in his eyes.

Part demon or not, he was still a pre-teen boy. And as such, he was still quite capable of embarassment.

That morning, Naruto walked into the ninja academy of Konoha. As part of his routine, he began speaking to one of the only two in the class he could tolerate.

" Mornin' to you too Shino."

The Aburame heir gave a look at him over his sunglasses that could be called a glare if Shino wasn't such a machine. The boy's bug colony buzzed angrily at the seat to Shino's left, keeping Naruto from sitting down.

" Look, Shino, tell them I'm sorry I killed that little bug guy who was in my seat, Ochaku or whatever."

The boy still stared at him oddly, but the bugs calmed and moved from the seat, and then Naruto sat down.

Instantly, the bugs started buzzing, and Shino looked ready to kill.

Naruto realized in an instant his mistake. There had been a bug still on the seat.

Before Naruto could apologize, however, Kiba, on Shino's right, turned and began speaking to the blond boy.

" Hey Uzumaki, check out Uchiha over there. I think he wants to have your babies."

Naruto held back a snort as he remembered the prank he had pulled on the walking angst movie two days before. He still retained one of Kyuubi's more innocent traits as well. Her like of pranking and trickery.

Naruto couldn't actually hunt the Uchiha, as he didn't need the fanclub after his balls( Not as if he was scared of them, though. They were all just a very weak herd of kunoichi,) so he just did anything he could to screw with the boy's mind.

He had beaten the Uchiha in wrestling easy enough on lunch break. From there, he had henged a kage bunshin to look like the kid and kissed both Sakura and Ino quite passionately. They had instantly began seeking the boy, hoping to go mess with him.

This had been made especially easy since the two fools didn't know solid clones existed.

Naruto had almost pitied the clone having to defile itself by touching two disgustingly weak kunoichi.

The best part about it was that he had henged himself to look like Itachi from what he had seen in the bingo book while fighting Sasuke, and thus, had enraged the boy as he went in search of his attacker.

Sasuke had no doubt learned that it was him when he had saw Naruto de-henging himself in an alley. Naruto had let Sasuke follow him, and lured him closer into the alley, where he had subdued and tied up the boy, allowing Ino and Sakura to do as they pleased.

When Naruto relayed this to Kiba, the boy had laughed brashly, and Aburame gave a ghost of a smile and a slight shrugging of his shoulders, something Naruto knew the boy did while laughing.

At that moment, Iruka walked in. The genin test had occured the day before, and they were to be given their teams today, which was why even Naruto and Kiba were paying attention.

" Team Seven. Hatake Kakashi. Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto rolled his eyes as Sakura gave a high-pitched squeal and hugged Sasuke, who was at her left. Ino and another large portion of the class looked down sadly.

" Team Eight. Yuuhi Kurenai. Aburame Shino, Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino."

Naruto's head banged against the desk as Ino looked in Aburame's way in disgust. Shino seemed passive, but his bugs were buzzing in annoyance.

" Team Ten. Sarutobi Asuma. Akimichi Choji, Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru."

Kiba frowned as Shikamaru slept. Choji just kept eating his chips, eyes narrowed. He was obviously annoyed with Kiba, as the boy was one of the bigger bullies of his that Naruto had beat up when they were younger for fun, even if the Akimichi had believed it was because they were friends.

And they were, but that hadn't been the reason at all.

Or at least, Naruto told himself that, was what Kyuubi and, on a more base level, he himself knew.

Naruto and his new team met up outside of the academy. Well, in all truth, Shino and Naruto met up and they dragged Ino with them, as she had nothing better to do during the break they got until they went in to wait for their senseis.

" Group sparring."

Ino looked disgusted at this.

" We'll be dirty and sweaty before meeting our sensei, and she's a woman!"

Naruto held his nose and counted at this, even though it was more just to exaggerate. Shino, Naruto could tell, was rolling his eyes.

" We need to get begin defining our teamwork strategies. Plus, we need to get a feel for each others strengths and weaknesses."

Naruto would never know why Shino bothered to explain such a thing to that girl. She rolled her eyes and sighed, as if she was doing them a favor.

" Yeah well, let's make this quick."

Two minutes later, she was on the ground, sweating with a kunai at her throat from Naruto. He had held back to see some of her taijutsu, and it was barely decent. And he hadn't even mentioned that her ninjutsu and genjutsu skills didn't even exist.

As for her bloodline jutsu, it was useless, he had just pounded into her. She had missed with it twice in very sad attempts. At least it only take half a minute for it to return to her.

Next sparring match was Shino and Naruto, as, despite being friends, both kept their training secret and didn't know each others strengths at all.

As the fight began, Naruto sent out a massive wave of chakra, causing the tracking bug on his skin to fall off and go back to Shino, senses screwed up. Ino froze up as she felt the chakra, which was almost like a wave passing over her.

" Don't try that unless you want me to hurt your friends Shino."

The Aburame scowled deeply, which Naruto could barely see over his coat.

Naruto jetted forward in an instant, katana drawn, and leapt over Shino's head. He then plunged the blade behind him, right into Shino's heart.

Ino gaped. Until the boy exploded in a mass of bugs. Then she screamed.

Naruto sent off a gargantuan wave of chakra as the bugs neared him, filling up the chakra-eating suckers before they reached him. He shook off the wave of nausea from exhausting so much chakra at once before running forward to the now in the open Shino, sheathing his katana.

The Blond Taijutsu Specialist closed the distance in an instant and furiously struck out at Shino's face, he deftly ducked, leaving bugs on Naruto's arm, which attempted to drain his chakra and instantly fell after taking in too much.

Naruto bent backwards to avoid a kick, and then back-flipped while staying in place, going into a handstand and thus kicking Shino in the face with quite a bit of force.

The boy reached out and sent a torrent of bugs flying out of his arms and towards Naruto. Naruto, now aware that this was no more than a pure mass of bugs, a clone, sent off another wave and overpowered the bugs. Naruto knew that Shino couldn't afford another clone now.

Naruto turned towards Shino in a complete one-eighty. Before the battle could continue, Ino's watch went off, meaning that it was time to return to the academy.

With a sigh, Naruto went back in, Ino and Shino following.

* * *

They sat in their team's training ground indian style. In front of them, their instructor, a beautiful woman in her late twenties, most likely, stared at them piercingly before gesturing to Naruto.

" As you all know, the most important part of being a ninja is teamwork." She frowned at Naruto's snort. " And for teamwork to work correctly, you must know your teammates. Give us your likes, dislikes, dreams, and hobbies. You first."

Naruto, knowing that she had waved at him, began.

" Name's Uzumaki Naruto, don't feel like reciting my likes and dislikes, but I will say I abhor weakness and those content in being sheep, those dependant on everyone and believing that, in life, they won't have to work for anything." He gave a look towards Ino, who looked down, unwilling to gaze into his harsh eyes. Kurenai gave a look of slight approval at this dislike. " My dream is to shape all of those who I come across that I find useful into tools to hunt my prey, and to become an ANBU and Hunter-nin."

Kurenai kept a neutral face and pointed to Ino.

" I... Like..." She gazed at Naruto, face pale, before looking down. He looked at her strangely, and Kurenai quirked an eyebrow. " I don't really like much besides flowers. I don't like people who seek to harm nature, and... My hobbies are gardening and working in the family flower shop. My dream is to become an ANBU."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at that. For a second, he seemed to approve of her ambition, but he became passive immediately after.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Kurenai and Shino both still caught this. Shino smirked under his jacket, and Kurenai remained neutral, but a smile crossed her face for an instant : She knew now that Naruto would be motivated to help Ino.

Shino began, as the genjutsu mistress forgot in her brief happy moment.

" My name is Aburame Shino. I like my colony of bugs and I dislike those who hurt my friends, family, and bugs. My hobbies are tending to my bugs and walks. My dream is to see to it that my colony becomes very successful and to become a powerful Jounin."

She frowned deeply at his lack of emotion, but mentally, gave him points for devotion.

She stood, and immediately, her team did as well, except Naruto, who slept calmly. Ino gaped at his boldness before shaking her head, and Kurenai, mildly amused yet at the same time irritated, kicked the boy, who poofed out of existence.

Naruto, who had been at Ino's right side, spoke.

" Boo."

Ino jumped. Kurenai allowed herself a smile and Shino looked on passively.

Before Kurenai began speaking, Naruto spotted something silvery, something strange out of the corner of his eye. Immediately, he felt a deep tearing feel, and he could hear something rip as it breached his mind.

This was different from what happened in genjutsu, where you lulled the walls into falling, into believing all was right. This was raping his mind's walls and causing them to fall, and then attacking his mind relentlessly.

Naruto, ignoring Ino's scream as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, felt a strange darkness enclose him, reaching out to him even as he passed out.

As he was in this darkness, after his eyes opened, he wished they had stayed closed.

In front of him was a sweeping figure in a long black cloak, it's breath so horrid that it caused his enhanced senses to go on the fritz. It's cold breath pressed against his even as it's bony hand touched his cheek.

" Down boy."

Naruto shook his head to clear it as he heard the woman's voice. It reached out to him and lulled him, but his natural fighting instincts, his hunter ones, beat away the temptation to listen to her voice.

"Hello, Naruto-kun."

Her smile was so capturing, so powerful... But he shook his false feelings away and took a good look at this wench.

She held the strange creature on a chain attatched to it's neck with a delicate and deceptively smooth hand. She looked unbelievably beautiful, so much so that his eyes rose up to meet hers.

While lulled, he realized with a start, she had touched his face and pulled it up to look into his eyes.

" So beautiful. So like your father's. He was so delectable, you know, but you look so delicious that, maybe I should have taken you instead..."

Naruto slapped her hand away, blushing. He didn't like this. He was made to look like what he was : simply a twelve-year-old genin. Just a kid. Not the fierce hunter he told himself to be.

He almost wanted to fall into her arms, and he did : he fell onto her...

" Don't need none of that, tiger." She gave a grin that showed off her flawless teeth while pushing him off. " We can save that for later, right now, I'm all business."

And then it came to him. Like a slap by someone with icy hands.

She had mentioned his father.

" You know my father." It was a statement. No questions. He had to appear to be in control.

" Little slow there, tiger? I'll have to fix that for you one day."

He took a step back from her. Black hair, full, red lips... She was so... beautiful. Even he thought so. He was stuck on the spot and it had taken all of his will to step back.

She smiled even more deeply. " I'm so hurt, Naruto. Hurt and impressed. Impressed that you are able to move, to resist my power in this realm, yet hurt that you do not recognize me."

He looked at her and gulped. She was expecting something of him, for him to know her...

And then, she took his shoulders from behind him and pressed him closely to her body : he almost forgot that he had just left his friends somewhere. He no longer remembered the mortal realm, he now just thought there was nothing except her and him.

And then, she massaged his shoulders. He melted, almost purred...

" Come now Naruto, do you remember me now? The one who helped you through the early years? I can see it now, my name is on the edge of your memory. Don't you remember me Naruto? You had told me you loved me, that I would be yours through all of your lives. And you died and are in this body, still all the man I thought you used to be."

He could see. He saw new things.

And then it all came back. A name that he moaned, that he knew now that he had not forgotten.

" Yukina."

She smiled in delight. Then she faded and reappeared, now in front of him, appearing to morph before his eyes into a beautiful weapon.

The ANBU katana he had received.

He understood now.

" My love, I am this. We met again through fate's kindness. This blade was remade from one made thousands of years ago. The one you used to take my soul. Remember?"

He did now.

" Oh my love, I am so happy to see you once more. And do you remember this one, this wraith who was sealed into this sword as well? Your true soul, your power left tainted after your defeat?"

He remembered this as well. And then, it all rushed by him. He could remember it happening almost at once as it fell into him. He could see the black thing rushing and merging with him, and he allowed it, willing to become whole again.

And he did. And then, he knew nothing other than darkness.


End file.
